From Forbes.com:
In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."
Now, remember, the people behind the bailout plan are conservatives. You know, the ones who belong to the "party of fiscal sanity".